Tour de Suisse: Peter Sagan wins stage three as Swiss Railways gives the breakaway a chance

Railway crossing barriers give breakaway an extra two minutes but it is caught in the final kilometre

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) continued his devastating run of form with victory in the third stage of the Tour de Suisse, between Martigny and Aarberg, to take his second win of the race so far. Despite pulling his foot out his pedal with 300 metres to go, the Slovakian champion - dressed in the white jersey of the points classification - came around Australian Baden Cooke (Orica-GreenEdge) in the closing metres of the 194.7km stage. Great Britain’s Ben Swift (Team Sky) in third at the end of an unusually hard chase for the peloton.

“I can’t really explain what happened or how I didn’t fall off,” said Sagan afterwards. “I went fast into the bend so I wouldn’t lose second position, but I lost my grip because the tarmac was wet. I instinctively took my foot off the pedal to stop myself slipping and then carried on to catch Cooke who was getting away. It worked out well thanks to a bit of luck and of course the team’s incredible hard work.

“Once again my teammates gave their all to shut down the breakaway which seemed to have got away at point one of the race,” he added. “We’ll see how the next stages go one day at a time; if there’s another chance to try and win again, I certainly won’t pass it over.”

The trio of Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale), Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank) and Jonas Vangenechten (Lotto-Belisol) escaped in the early kilometres of the stage, and were allowed to build up a lead that reached eleven minutes. What should have been a relatively simple catch by the sprinters’ teams was complicated however, by a railway crossing that closed just inside the final 50km.

The Movistar and Orica-GreenEdge teams were able to get most of their riders through before the barriers came down, but were told to wait for the rest of the peloton by the race commissaires. This saw the trio’s lead grow from six and a half minutes, to eight and a half, with just 47km left for the peloton to close them down.

This looked to be an impossible task at first, but gradually the sprinters teams began to close the trio down. Vangenechten was dropped by the other two on the penultimate climb, with just over 25km to go, and for a while it looked as though they might hold out. Heartbreakingly though, they were caught with little more than half a kilometre to go, as Orica-GreenEdge lined up Cooke for the finish.

The Australian had Sagan and Swift locked onto his wheel as he took the final corners into the finishing straight though, and the seemingly unbeatable Slovak cruised past him in the closing metres.

All of the overall contenders finished in the peloton behind Sagan, and so there were no changes overall, with stage two winner Rui Costa (Movistar) holding onto the yellow jersey for another day.

The break goes early and long but the peloton has everything under control

After the high mountains of the previous day, the profile of the third stage was a much less spectacular affair, as it travelled from south to north across the western part of the country. The 3rd category Frienisberg, with 25km to go, and the 4th category Aarbergstrasse with just 10.1km to go - both within a 39.1km finishing circuit - should be enough to provide opportunities for attacking riders at the finish however.

After an immediate initial flurry of attacks at the very start of the stage, Bonnafond and Mørkøv escaped after just three kilometres, with Vangenechten joining them soon after. Bonnafond was the best placed of the three but, after just two stages, was already 9’30” down on Costa in 110th place.

As the trio rode through Montreux after 46km, its lead was up to 7’40” and the rain that had visited the final part of the previous stage returned. On the rolling mid part of the stage that followed the three riders continued to increase their advantage, which reached eleven minutes after 87km, which was where it would remain for some time. Bonnafond was now the virtual leader on the road.

Inside the final 90km the peloton finally began to react to the threat of the three leaders and, under the control of Liquigas-Cannondale and FDJ-BigMat, the gap began to drop quite quickly. The effect of this pacesetting also saw the peloton briefly split into several groups.

Orica-GreenEdge joined the chase and, with 60km to go, the gap was down to 7’20”. Just a few kilometres later though, as the peloton arrived at the town of Murten, it was delayed as a railway crossing closed. The entire Movistar team - along with race leader Costa - and most of Orica-GreenEdge had passed through before the barriers came down, but most of the peloton was forced to stop.

By the time the train had passed, and the majority of riders were able to get started again, more than two minutes had elapsed and neither Movistar or Orica-GreenEdge was hanging around.

The yellow jersey group was now within 6’40” of the three leaders, with just 50km to go, but the race commissaire - deciding that the riders had disobeyed the lights on the railway crossing, as well as the waved instructions of a moto marshall - that they had unlawfully crossed the railway crossing and should slow down and wait for the rest.

By the time the peloton was all back together again - much to the chagrin of the Movistar riders - the gap to the three fugitives was back up to 8’32”, and they had just 46km left to ride. This quickly dropped to 7’40” by the 40km to go point as the peloton’s speed immediately lifted, but it was still faced with the stiff task of pulling back almost a minute in every five kilometres.

As the breakaway riders crossed the finish line to start the 39.1km circuit, the sun briefly came out and the roads began to dry, and the peloton followed them over 6’33” later. The gap was closing fast, but it was still a tall order to shut the trio down in time; the peloton was strung out in one long line by the pace set by Team Sky, Liquigas-Cannondale, Orica-GreenEdge, and Lampre-ISD at the front, and small groups were struggling to prevent themselves being dropped off the back.

Three goes down to two but they still might just make it

As the trio hit the Frienisberg, the sheer number of kilometres began to tell, and Vangenechten was unable to match the pace of his two companions. As Mørkøv led Bonnafond over the top, they were several seconds ahead of the Belgian; as the peloton hit the climb - now just 3’19” behind them - Moreno Moser detached from the front. The 21-year-old - who had finished third in the stage one time trial - was reeled in shortly after he rolled over the top but, with just 25km to go, the two remaining leaders were still 3’08” ahead.

Team Sky was now leading the peloton but, as Bonnafond put his wheel slightly ahead of Mørkøv’s at the intermediate sprint, in Uettligen with 17.3km to go, the peloton followed him over 2’16” back.

Vangenechten hadn’t given up hope of catching up with the front two again but, with 13km to go, the Liquigas-Cannondale-led peloton swept past him. The gap was down to less than a minute as Bonnafond and Mørkøv arrived at the foot of the Aarbergstrasse climb, and just 37 seconds as Bonnafond led them over the top.

The two leaders now looked doomed but, with the course predominantly downhill all the way to the finish, they were not giving up.

Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale were still having to work hard on the descent, and the gap was still 19 seconds with six kilometres to go. Garmin-Barracuda and Lampre-ISD took over, but it was still ten seconds with four to go.

Incredibly Bonnafond and Mørkøv managed to pull out another second by the three kilometre banner, but it was down to eight with two to go. The still-wet roads were making thing a little treacherous for fugitives and chasers alike and, under the flamme rouge, the duo was still holding out.

With just 700 metres to go though, the Orica-GreenEdge team pulled the peloton past the duo and lined up Cooke for the sprint. The Australian led into the technical finish, but Sagan and Swift were right on his tail, and the Slovakian champion cruised by on the line; blowing kisses as he did so.

There was a three-second gap to Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana) in fourth place, but the majority of the peloton was lined up behind the Italian. Costa and all the other top riders were safely present, and so the top of the general classification remained unchanged, with the Portuguese rider still leading Fränk Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) by eight seconds.